There is a road all must take. There is a time feet must bleed from the long walk that lies ahead. There will be stumbles over jagged gravel and upturned roots, but this is a road all must take. This is the road that redemption demands: bloodied cobblestones, a forest of disappointment to show you your true face, a sea of heartache to bring you to your knees so that you may rise again. This is the road that takes you to you. This is the road that sheds away all false pretenses, every false pretender you have tried to be; this is the way. The way ahead is sorrowful with storming clouds waiting; they wait to pour themselves onto your broken soul and your healing body. Cleansing will always sting, falling is necessary, and breaking is also becoming.

Supreme Leader Kylo Ren. The title rolled off the tongue, yet as Kylo sat in the solace of his throne room, feeling like anything other than a king or a leader, A haunting thought occurred to him.

Did Vader feel this way? Was Anakin lonely?

Kylo clenched an ungloved hand and pushed away such thoughts. He ignored the biting feeling of regret, of dread, of the true feeling underneath all others- sadness. But, then it happened in a blink. The emptiness of his dark throne room had been sliced with the disruptive sound of lilting laughter. The mellifluous sound was so joyous and light it did not belong in a place devoid of such things. Kylo felt the familiar tug, like being on the end of a string, and then he saw her. Her laugh was what filled the silence of his throne room.

Kylo could not see anything but her; there was only her. There was a moment that she had not noticed his presence, a moment that was less than a second but for that miniscule moment he saw her. He saw the tightness in her shoulders, the dullness of a laugh that did not reach her eyes. She wasn't as happy as he knew she was pretending to be, and Kylo did not relish in this.

Kylo saw the moment Rey knew their force bond had brought them back together. She froze mid laugh, stood straight, and turned. Her eyes narrowed at him in the same way they did when she had called him a monster. He did not flinch. He deserved that look in her eyes for he had been the one to put it there, though in the haze of her hatred he could still the green in them. Secretly his favorite shade of green in the whole galaxy, and he had seen it all.

"Rey," Kylo breathed out her name like a whisper.

Everything faded and there were only infinities and cosmos in the space between them. They stood on two sides of the galaxy, behind different lines, yet in this space where there was nothing Kylo felt everything.

"Rey," Kylo said again, louder and sure.

"What do you want from me?"

Kylo was sure that Rey meant to sound more biting, more unrelenting, but she only sounded tired. He shook his head at her. "Nothing." It was true. He wanted nothing from her; he just wanted her.

Rey breathed in deeply. She was frustrated, he guessed, but she was keeping him out. He deserved that.

"I never meant to hurt you." He wasn't sure if he was apologizing or stating a fact, it had been a long time since he was sorry for something. Kylo was starting to be sorry for everything.

Rey blinked back tears. She was angry. He knew it in the way her lips had formed a tight line and refused to say anything. She was going to turn away from him, he knew it and he deserved it.

"I trusted you." Rey's voice shook ever so slightly. "I believed in you."

Kylo nodded. "I know. Do you still?"

Rey said nothing. She stood straight, looked him once over, and as he knew she would, Rey turned away. Kylo watched her go, an odd lump in his throat. He knew she'd leave, but he did not know the way it would feel.

Supreme Leader Kylo Ren. It rolled off the tongue but the taste was bitter. He had everything, but nothing he wanted.

/

Short and sweet first chapter, see ya in the much longer, more emotionally loaded second chapter!